2025 W. NCAA Previews: The Return of Huske: Can She Strike Down A. Walsh in the 2 IM, Again?

2025 Women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 19-22, 2025
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center — Federal Way, Washington
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
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WOMEN’S 200 IM – By The Numbers

• NCAA Record: 1:48.37— Kate Douglass, Virginia (2023)
• U.S. Open Record: 1:48.37— Kate Douglass, Virginia (2023)
• American Record: 1:48.37— Kate Douglass, Virginia (2023)
• 2024 NCAA Champion: Alex Walsh, Virginia – 1:49.20

With teammate Kate Douglass graduating and rival Torri Huske taking an Olympic red-shirt year, 2024 saw Virginia’s Alex Walsh as the heavy favorite in the 200 IM. In 2022, as a sophomore, Walsh won the event in a 1:50.08, a then NCAA record. A year later, she ran into the force that was Douglass, who swam an earth-shattering 1:48.37. She was also pushed down the podium by Huske, whose 1:50.06 supplanted Walsh by the slimmest of margins, just .01.

With that in mind, Walsh held nothing back in the finals last year. Despite missing her main rivals, she broke 1:50 for the first time, recording a time of 1:49.20 – the second-fastest performance ever. With a margin of victory of 2.76, Walsh would easily be the presumptive favorite this year, but the return of Huske poses an interesting question. Will Huske’s reemergence push Walsh into the 1:48 range, or will Huske once again defeat the defending champion?

A World Apart

Both Walsh and Huske are the only two entrants with personal bests under 1:52.00, and as such, they are the heavy favorites to top the podium in the event. While it’s actually Huske who is the top seed this year, we’ll start this preview with Walsh, who has claimed this title a total of three times.

Walsh qualified for her second Olympic Games this past summer, in the long course version of this event, but was ultimately disqualified in the final for an illegal turn, after hitting the wall in the bronze medal position. With such a disappointing end to the summer and a meniscus surgery this past fall, Walsh’s prospects for this short course season were anything but certain.

However, Walsh quickly returned to form, collecting five medals at the Short Course Worlds in Budapest. She claimed a silver medal in this event, in a new personal best time of 2:02.65, finishing behind only Douglass. She added an individual bronze in the 200 breast but perhaps will be best remembered for her 1:53.25 lead-off in the World Record setting 4×200 free relay.

With no yards swims this fall and eschewing the 200 IM at ACCs, Walsh has had limited opportunities to swim this event this season. Her only recorded time this season comes from the Eddie Reese Texas Showdown, where Walsh cruised to a victory of over two seconds, posting a then NCAA leading time of 1:51.80.

The time stood until ACCs, when Huske won her first ACC title with a swim of 1:51.46. Huske burst onto the scene in 2021, making the US Olympic team in the 100 fly but also placing 4th at the Olympic Trials in the 200 IM with a time of 2:10.38. With a pedigree in long course, her short course accolades shouldn’t surprise anyone. In 2022, she finished as runner-up to Walsh with a time of 1:51.81. In 2023, she once again finished as runner-up, this time to Douglass, with a time and PB of 1:50.06.

While opting out of yards swimming last season, Huske set a new PB of 2:08.47 (LCM) at the San Antonio Pro Swim Series meet, beating Walsh by .13. She even swam the event at the Olympic Trials, finishing 3rd in the semifinal with a time of 2:09.43, before ultimately scratching out of the final. In Paris, Huske claimed five medals, three of them gold, so has been on a run of great form.

With Walsh recovering from meniscus surgery and competing in Budapest, Huske returned to competition with the Stanford Cardinal. While her 200 IM ACC win wasn’t a PB, she did swim PBs in the 100 free and 100 fly and, earlier in the season, swam PBs in both the 100 and 200 breast.

In comparing the two’s splits, the breaststroke splits stick out. While Huske recorded a new PB of 1:00.74 in the 100 this past January, Walsh, just a few weeks later, at the beginning of February, was doing the same, albeit with a result of 56.85.

While their season’s best times show Huske with a faster backstroke split, their personal bests show a different story, where Walsh has a lead of over half a second. If Huske has any chance of beating Walsh, she will need to maximize her advantages and minimize her disadvantages, and while taking it out faster in the fly is helpful, the .24 differential after the first 50 isn’t enough and leaves a lot to be made up by the freestyle. When comparing their PBs head-to-head, Walsh easily claws back the deficit over the middle 100 and, in fact, gains a lead of over 1.3 seconds—too much for any swimmer to overcome, despite Huske’s freestyle prowess.

That said, Huske’s season-best in 2023 before swimming the 1:50.06 was just 1:53.37, so with already having been nearly two seconds faster in-season this year, Huske could be in for a big drop. Similarly, in 2023, Walsh was 1:51.95 before going 1:50.07, and last year was 1:51.76 before dropping to 1:49.20, so perhaps it is not necessarily a sign of things to come.

Footloose

Chomping at their heels, both metaphorically and perhaps literally, as the time differential could be a body length, are a trio of 1:52s. Leading the charge is Texas fifth-year Emma Sticklen. Sticklen is much better known as a butterflier, having won the 200 distance each of the last two years at NCAAs. This year, the Longhorn’s focus has naturally remained on the butterfly events, recently winning both the 100 and 200 at the SEC Championships in personal bests, the latter of which missed Alex Walsh‘s NCAA record by the slimest of margins, .01.

Sticklen has not contained her improvement to just the fly events, however, as she has made steady improvements in this event. This time last year, Sticklen entered the meet as the 12th seed with a time of 1:54.94, ultimately finishing 11th in a time of 1:54.19. This season, however, Sticklen got things started with a bang, hitting a new PB of 1:52.75 at her mid-season, to then only drop even more time, winning the SEC title in 1:52.42, beating out the likes of Bella Sims, Josephine Fuller, and Zoe Dixon.

Fuller, a senior at Tennessee, placed third last year behind Walsh and Isabel Ivey, who finished her 5th year of eligibility in 2024. Fuller entered the meet with a 1:52.58 last year and just nearly broke 1:52.00, recording a time of 1:52.04. Over her last three years at Tennessee, Fuller has made remarkable improvements. In 2022, she was 1:59.05, finishing 57th. In 2023, she jumped up to 11th place with 1:54.94 and then improved to 3rd with her 1:52.04 last year. Fuller sits 4th this year with a 1:52.86, and while a little slower than her entry time of last year, Fuller did go personal bests in both backstroke at SECs (50.05/1:50.14) and the sliced over a second off her PB in the 200 free at Tennessee’s last chance meet.

Stanford sophomore Caroline Bricker is the 3rd of the entrants under 1:53, coming in with a season best (and personal best) of 1:52.97 from this past ACC Championships, where she chopped off nearly a second from her 10th place finish at NCAA (1:53.87). Bricker did enter the meet as the 5th seed last year as well, but added time in prelims and was unable to equal her then PB of 1:53.31. If she can swim a strong prelims swim to ensure a finals swim, Bricker could contend for the bronze medal; however, there is more competition for that spot outside of just Fuller and Sticklen.

The Outsiders

Stanford could easily make it three swimmers in the A-final, if Lucy Bell can emulate her taper from last year. In 2024, as a sophomore, Bell entered the meet as the 16th seed with a seed of 1:55.67. In the preliminaries, she dropped a 1:53.50 and in the finals earned 4th place with a personal best of 1:52.64. This year, Bell once again finds herself as the 16th seeded, entering the meet with a seed time of 1:54.74, and with similar drops, she could be back in the 1:52 range but will have to hold off ACC rvials Lea Polonsky and Leah Hayes.

The pair, a senior from California and first-year from Virgina, each finished ahead of Bell at ACCs, with Polonsky taking the bronze in 1:53.28, a personal best, and Hayes, not far behind at 1:54.01, which was good for 4th. The pair each have big meet racing experience, as the two faced off at the 2022 World Championships, where Hayes earned a bronze medal in this event, with Polonsky just missing out on a second swim, finishing 17th. Hayes holds a PB of 1:53.57 from December of 2023, but in her first season at UVA, she hasn’t shown the same spark in this event that led her to medal in 2022. That said, Hayes did drop a new PB in the 400 IM at mid-season, going from 4:03.05 to 4:01.34, so perhaps the sprint-orientated IM just hasn’t caught up to the longer one.

The only other two returning A-finalists outside of Walsh, Fuller, and Bell represent schools from opposite poles of the country, with last year’s 5th-place finisher Phoebe Bacon swimming for Wisconsin and the 8th-place finisher Zoe Dixon calling Florida home.

Bacon, a two-time Olympian and a two-time NCAA champion in the 200 backstroke, has always entered this event at NCAA. Each year, while her placing has fluctuated up and down, she has always set new PBs. In 2021, she finished 4th (1:54.55); the following year, 10th (1:54.39); in 2023, 5th (1:53.56); and then last year, 4th (1:53.16). With such consistency and having just gone PBs in the 100 back and in the 200 IM at Big Tens, taking 1st in the latter with a time of 1:53.12.

Dixon, a sophomore last year, was the 9th seed, entering the meet with a time of 1:54.04. The Florida Gator dropped another PB in the prelims to secure a berth in the A-final with a time of 1:53.73. In finals, Dixon added a little bit of time, finishing 8th in 1:54.27. This year, however, Dixon’s entry time is just over half a second slower, with her 1:54.57 ranking her 14th. In a crowded SEC final, Dixon finished 7th (1:55.25) behind many of those already mentioned as well as runner-up Campbell Stoll (1:53.37), Sara Stotler (1:54.56), and Ieva Maluka (1:55.05). Those three rank as the 8th, 13th, and 18th seeds, respectively.

The Verdict

Stoll, a Texas sophomore, finds herself in a very precarious spot as the 8th seed. Her runner-up finish at SECs in a new PB of 1:53.37 is a very encouraging sign, especially considering she was 1:56.30 at last year’s NCAAs. But with the likes of Bell, Dixon, and teammates Campbell Chase and Angie Coe, seeded not far behind her, Stoll will be the first target for any swimmer looking to make the jump into the A-final.

In trying to make this decision, Walsh’s performance last year, against the relatively empty field, tips the scale more in her favor. While Huske has improved her breaststroke, so has Walsh, and her recent PB in the 100 fly could help cut into the lead that Huske desperately needs after the 1st 50.

After the top two, it seems to be a toss-up between Fuller and Sticklen for 3rd and 4th and then an open race for 5th to 8th between six or so swimmers. While Sticklen has had the flashier and more noticeable results this year, mainly coming so close to the 200 fly record, Fuller has quietly put together a strong season and did place 3rd last year. Sticklen beating Fuller by over two seconds at SEC is a little worrying for the Lady Vol, which is why the Longhorn is getting the edge.

As for the rest, it’ll really be who can throw down a fast enough morning swim to ensure a spot in the A-final. Bacon’s trajectory over the past 4 years in the event and her PBs at Big Tens gives her the edge of the Stanford pair of Bricker and Bell, despite the two having better PBs.

SwimSwam’s Picks

Dark Horse – Kennedy Noble (NC State): 1:56.22 – The 27th seed may seem a far way to go to find a Dark Horse, but Noble certainly has the past history to warrant inclusion in this list. A junior, Noble has made the B-final in the past two years at this event. As a freshman at NC State, she placed 14th in the finals with a time of 1:55.96, and last year, she went 1:53.72, beating Bricker, Sticklen, and Polonsky to finish 9th in the B-Final. Noble would normally garner more attention, but she didn’t make any of the three finals in the event at an increasingly crowded ACCs, finishing just 25th in a time of 1:58.82. That said, Noble could easily put up an A-final worthy time swimming in a non-circle seeded prelims heat.